INTERTWINING (and inter- eTwinning) GENERATIONS

(picture taken by one of our pupils)

On April 29th 2013, in the European year of active citizenship, the Liceo

Machiavelli opens up its doors to the intergenerational dialogue on the European

Day of Solidarity between Generations.

Some of our pupils’ grandparents have been invited to our branch school (via da

Procida) to share their life experience and talk to pupils about how they can plan to

build a better Europe for the future.

After a whole school year dedicated to deepen the concept, the practice and the

expression of democracy within two eTwinning projects - Democracy 2.0 and The

book of life -, pupils have today been invited to follow a hands-on path of active

citizenship by getting in touch with the experience and the reflection of people

belonging to other generations.

The first guest of our meeting is our former headteacher, Mr. Marcello Montagna. He

worked at school for 47 years and can now say that he has seen a deep change in

pupils. According to him, nowadays pupils know less, but they have more curiosity,

or, as he says in Latin, curiositas, thanks to the many inputs they receive from media

and society.

The Europe of the future might then be built up by starting from a school community

which has to be able to transform and broaden the relationship between teachers and

pupils opening up to the suggestions and stimuli coming from the encounter with

other European countries through projects of mobility and real or virtual twinning.

Our second guest, Mr. Mario Pernazza, emphasized the importance of body

expression through traditional dance: e.g. mazurka, polka can also be seen as a way

of relating relate to our fellows. According to him, sharing this passion within a

couple helps increase the harmony between the spouses.

As a result, his suggestion is that a better future Europe might be build up starting

from forms of socialisation which might include body expression “since when you

dance, for example, you have to stay focused on the ‘we’ and not only on yourself” .

From active feet to …. active hands! Mrs. Rita Pernazza, our third guest, has told us

that, beside being faithful companion to her “dancer” husband, she is also faithful to

her crochet! She has shown the pupils that you need a very cheap equipment to take

up crochet. Then she has tried to teach some girls how to do that.

The girls have realised how difficult they find using their hands even in very simple

crochet movements. Mrs. Pernazza and the girls have come to the conclusion that a

better Europe might rediscover some “old” and traditional jobs which require a

correct and crafty use of you hands, a high level of concentration and which also

imply a rejection of a consumeristic attitude promoting material recycling.

After his son’s death in a horse-drawn omnibus accident, Mr. Laici’s grandfather

designed and patented in the XIX c. Paris a safety helmet for motobikers. Even if he

was a simple shoemaker, he was so creative as to design the first prototype of an

airbag (which Mr. Laic has showed to us), which the French government did not want

to patent underestimating its usefulness for future citizens.

From Italy, which is generally regarded as a country where road safety rules are

neglected, here you have, thanks to our fourth guest – the grandson of the inventor of

the safety helmet – the suggestion to build up a European Union which cares about

the safety at work and on the road of its citizens.

Report of the event by Augusta Charis Marconi and Mariella Fasanelli

Useful links to our materials.

2013 generations@school video: https://vimeo.com/66962447

Link to the article in the school site:

http://www.ismachiavelli.eu/pags/spip.php?article757

Among the links, we have also included some videos made by our pupils last year to

celebrate the Year of Solidarity between generations, which have not taken part in

any competitions and have been useful to inspire this year’s work.

Video Matilde: http://youtu.be/RuRl75Al4B4

Video Camilla: http://youtu.be/nBFUfaMSrAY

Video Virginia: http://youtu.be/66xJKpRqiRs